Summertime and the signin' is easy

The recall drive kicking off today is going to be very difficult, we’re told by political pros, and very expensive.

A herculean task.

It’s going to take military precision to make the punishing Sept. 26 deadline, we’re reminded. Experienced professionals will have to employ all their billable skills to gather more than 100,000 legit John Hancocks.

And, of course, major money will be required to oil the machine.

Maybe in ordinary times that would be true. But these are crazy times.

Steve Peace — a former Democratic assemblyman and state senator, an architect of the state’s open-primary revolution, and the proverbial smartest guy in the room — cracked me up the other day when he scoffed at all the hand-wringing, which he sees as a way to pump up business for political operatives.

“They make it look like voodoo,” he jeered.

“I don’t think it will take 20 cents to gather the signatures,” he went on. “It will take a Killer Tomato level of ineptitude to not reach the number,” he said, a reference to “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes,” the cult film classic he produced as a young man.

“And you can quote me,” he added.

Peace may not be that far over the top.

Given Mayor Bob Filner’s popularity, roughly on par with a fire-breathing dragon holding the city hostage, this signature drive will be unlike any other in the city’s history.

The challenge, Peace predicts, will be to give citizens a clear and timely path to a petition.

The danger is not that there will too few signers but that there will be too many at any given time and place. Bottlenecks could spring up. Fights may break out.

Let me sign! No cuts! My dog is in the car! My baby is in the car!

Ever the futurist, Peace sees a potential flood of stress-free signatures flowing from the Internet.

More than 5,000 people have “liked” the recall’s Facebook site, he pointed out. All those certified Filner detesters have a universe of friends who could also receive a PDF of a recall form which they would then print out, sign and deliver to a collection point.

When the recall petition goes viral, it’s over, Peace suggested.

Bob Glaser, the veteran hired gun to manage the drive, agreed that there’s a vein of gold in the Internet, but you have to be realistic about its impact, he said.

E-signatures, which would be the mother lode for grass-roots petitions, have been ruled illegal. Clearly, democracy has not kept up with the communication technology.

To generate a valid signature, a registered voter must go online and print out both pages of the recall petition, fill out the required information (for a “circulator” as well as a signer), staple both pages together, and get the package where it needs to go. Lots of steps, all possible kisses of autograph death.

Glaser sees well below 10 percent of the signatures coming via the Internet. Significant but not a game-changer. To get to, let’s say, 120,000, Glaser will gather the old-fashioned way, deploying a ground game that includes, when necessary, simultaneous voter registration.

In the end, the biggest threat to the recall is that it will be pre-empted by other programming. Filner will quit. Or be summarily removed. The political necktie party will be over before it’s begun, a real downer for donors.

Jean Freelove, the recall’s veteran fundraiser, recently sent out an email to potential supporters to tamp down worries that checks would be cashed and spent money even if Filner finally vamooses, a prospect more likely if the signature drive appears to be successful.

“We have very few days to gather 101,457 signatures and your help is urgently needed,” Freelove wrote, striking that desperate tone of the political class.

“We need people to sign petitions. We need people to circulate petitions. And we need people who will contribute financially so that we can get petitions printed and signatures verified.

“There are daily/hourly rumors that Filner is about to resign. We believe the purpose of these rumors is to hamper the recall effort. Please know that if he does resign while the recall effort is in progress, we will return any unused funds to the donors on a pro-rata basis, provided that the pro-rated refund itself is $50 or more …

“Without your help, the signature drive may fail. With your help, we can succeed and begin to get San Diego back on course.”

This drive won’t fail because of money. At this grotesque inflection point in San Diego’s history, the recall is a civic exorcism, a force of political nature. It cannot be denied. The outrage is too hot.

The recall will fail only if its reason for existence disappears, an anticlimax that’s devoutly to be wished.